Sustainable business as win-win

The EFMD just published a free PDF-book by Jonathan T Scott called “Sustainable Business”. At a quick glance, it seems to be a 130-pages manual on “how to generate win-win CSR” – and accordingly the content focuses on environmental issues. Why doesn’t the book talk about the economic benefits of treating workers well? My own research indicates that there can be win-win situations.

On the environmental side, however, the books seems to talk about some interesting issues, such as: “creating sustainability as an objective”, “analysing every stage of production”, “the history behind products”, “ecological rucksacks”. Regarding the “the perils of green-washing” it states, for instance:

Not Revealing Hidden Trade-Offs: 57% of the misleading claims made by manufacturers involved suggesting that the entire product was green when, in fact, the green aspect being promoted represented only a part of the product. The remainder of the product was both wasteful and destructive in terms of energy consumption, forestry destruction, and
water usage. (p. 42)

The publisher, EFMD, is “an international membership organization, based in Brussels, Belgium. With more than 730 member organizations from academia, business, public service and consultancy in 82 countries, EFMD provides a unique forum for information, research, networking and debate on innovation and best practice in management development.” Basically, many business schools and large companies are a member of the organization.